CA World 2011 is completed and I have turned my mind to the next activities in a busy month of public speaking. While at CA World, I attended and participated in multiple sessions and panels on the move to agility and innovation to deliver on the "Era of Now." In these sessions, many people asked, "How do I leverage my Project and Portfolio Management Office to transform my business?" Based on my discussions, I thought that I would share three tips with you:
Tip 1: Manage portfolios not individual projects
A common misconception in the industry is that PPM solutions are just about the management of projects and form. This is a trap for young players, as many of us are excellent at managing projects in isolation - which is good at a tactical level - but if we don't understand the interconnectivity or the larger picture we often end up delivering similar capabilities in different areas of the business or spending cycles on the wrong strategic outcomes.
Effective transformation requires a top-down approach for understanding the total portfolio, its criticality and risk factors. The benefit of PPM is that it not only helps manage the programs, projects and resources needed to deliver the requisite change, but it also facilitates the planning and decision making processes around determining the optimum future IT services portfolio and identifying which transformation initiatives will deliver the most business value.
Tip 2: Transformations take time - stay the course
Your IT transformation will not happen overnight, or maybe even in a few weeks or months. Transformation is a journey that can span a number of years and is not a single sprint, but rather a planned race that may include many sprints; therefore, it should be planned and managed accordingly with constant review and tuning to ensure alignment with the organizational outcomes.
Tip 3: Tackle the Enterprise IT Transformation incrementally.
Have ever tried to eat an elephant? Besides the fact that that I don't know if they taste good, you could not possibly consume one in a reasonable time, so why would you attempt to do a complete transformation in a single shot? The best approach to the transformation is incrementally: one application, business unit or division at a time. Deliver value and then continue on the journey. Typically organizations start with specific initiatives such as software rationalization, data center consolidation, infrastructure centralization, vendor consolidation, or utilization of the latest mobile technologies to improve the mobility and effectiveness of the sales force. There are plenty of case studies and ROI studies that show how PPM has successfully delivered such initiatives. For examples, I encourage you to visit the CA PPM website.
I have shared 3 tips with you today. What tips can you share with us?
Map image from Wikipedia